hawaii was... interesting. mostly due to a certain mother-in-law. again -- alas. it was pretty. and warm. i do miss being warm. but god damn do they make it hard for smokers and people who need to pee.

I don't think gold's any cheaper. I think I heard it was somewjere around $700 something an ounce.
Lately I've been trying to buy scrap gold off people so I can send it to the refiners.
I bought a little digi-scale.
I offer $3-4 a gram. Add it up, offer a bit less than the total I come up with, people tend to go for it.
I think I've got about an ounce of mixed karrets, probably averaging out to about 12kt and I've only spent $75 on it.
I don't know if you get as many people calling your store asking to sell gold as we do. If so, ask your boss if you can offer to buy it from them out of your pocket.
The people who sell are the type who would sell to a pawn shop and will take just about anything you offer for a nice hand full of scrap.
It's a pretty good investment. Especialy with the way the market fluxuates.
I still need to check with the refiners to see how much I need to send in and what they take as a cut. But so far I think I'm sitting on tripple what I spent.

Well I have Jewelry designs and concepts by Oppi Untracht, one on larger scale book on Silversmithing by Rupert Finegold and William Seitz.
Ungodly amounts of Lapidary Journal, gems and gemology and Metalsmith magazine back issues.
The Design and Creation of Jewelry by Robert Von Neumann.
Jewery: fundementals of metalsmithing by Tim McCreight.

I'd probably be willing to lend out anything but the oppi Untracht, simply because shipping would kill both of us.

My biggest problem is that I haven't read what I have because I hate to read, I'd rather do. Or do along with reading.
I was supposed to have been taught repoussage sometime. But my boss is lazy.

Ran the attic fan last night; cooled down this huge place to 65F and went off to work. Came home at lunch today. The A/C I had set to 78. It was only 76 and had not kicked on yet. The night is our friend. Are you?